THREE electric motors! Audi has jam packed as much EV content into the e-tron S as they possibly can. The S is the faster version of the new e-tron SUV and the Sportback version shaves the back end off the e-tron to give it an even sportier appearance. Is it any good? Paul Maric finds out!
Hardness tester results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
More Audi content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/audi
More Audi e-tron content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/audi/e-tron
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior: 0:57
Interior 4:34
Infotainment 5:58
Safet tech 9:11
Practicality 10:12
Charging 14:41
On the road 16:06
0-100 22:59
Verdict 24:01
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1
You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.
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#audi #etron #review
Hardness tester results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
More Audi content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/audi
More Audi e-tron content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/audi/e-tron
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior: 0:57
Interior 4:34
Infotainment 5:58
Safet tech 9:11
Practicality 10:12
Charging 14:41
On the road 16:06
0-100 22:59
Verdict 24:01
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1
You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.
Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!
Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!
CarExpert:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au
Paul Maric:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric
#audi #etron #review
Category
🚗
MotorTranscript
00:00 G'day, I'm Paul.
00:01 People love a fast SUV,
00:03 so when you make it electric, it also needs to be fast.
00:06 Look at this, this is the Audi e-tron.
00:08 We've reviewed this before, but this is now the Sportback,
00:11 which is the sleeker-looking version.
00:13 But this is also the S, which means it's fast,
00:15 and it also means that it debuts
00:17 three electric motors for Audi.
00:19 So that is some pretty impressive performance.
00:22 Now, it's there.
00:23 This competes with things like the Tesla Model X,
00:25 the Jaguar I-PACE, and the Mercedes-Benz EQC.
00:30 How much is it?
00:32 Well, it'll cost you 175 grand or thereabouts.
00:35 If that's too expensive,
00:36 the entire Sportback range kicks off
00:38 at just over 150 grand.
00:39 So it's a lot of money,
00:41 but I think it is going to be a lot of car,
00:43 and I'm looking forward to taking it for a bit of a spin.
00:45 Today, we're going to do a detailed review of this car,
00:47 so if you do wanna skip ahead to other parts of this review,
00:50 you can use the time codes that are on the screen there,
00:52 or if you're on YouTube, you get to scroll down
00:54 and use the chapters below.
00:55 So you have seven colours to pick from.
01:00 It's kind of the German rainbow, nothing too exciting,
01:02 but they're all free of charge, which is great news.
01:05 So e-tron, what's it all about?
01:07 Well, this car shares a platform with the Q7.
01:09 That means that this is effectively
01:12 an internal combustion platform
01:14 that they've turned into an electric one.
01:16 The fact that they've been able to fit
01:17 three electric motors here, I think, is really impressive.
01:19 So hopefully that translates to both range
01:21 and driving performance as well.
01:23 In terms of the design, you can tell the e-tron
01:25 apart from other Audis that look kind of the same
01:28 by this grille.
01:29 So all of these sections up the top and bottom are closed in.
01:32 You have a little slit here in the centre for cooling,
01:34 but outside of that, this is all pretty much closed up
01:38 because you can get aerodynamic benefits out of that stuff.
01:41 Audi logo up the front here, camera there,
01:43 and then down here, you've got more of that cooling element
01:46 and e-tron as well,
01:48 just in case you forget what you're driving.
01:50 Over on the headlights,
01:51 you have a set of full matrix LED headlights.
01:55 Now, these are impressive.
01:56 At nighttime, they have some excellent projection
01:59 down the road.
02:00 They really give you that clarity that you need.
02:02 Love these as well.
02:03 This is kind of unique to the e-tron,
02:05 that segment of LEDs there as well.
02:08 A little bit of cooling down the side there.
02:10 I love this little aero element as well.
02:12 It shoots right towards that wheel.
02:14 Speaking of the wheel, these are absolute whoppers.
02:17 So this comes standard with a 21-inch alloy wheel,
02:20 but this is the optional 22-inch alloy wheel.
02:24 It is enormous.
02:26 It also has an enormous set of brakes on it as well.
02:29 Have a look at those yellow calipers.
02:30 Low profile tyre.
02:31 This does have air suspension,
02:33 which hopefully means that it rides well,
02:35 so we'll see how we go when we go for a spin.
02:37 I love just behind here, that looks like a,
02:40 I don't know what that is.
02:41 It's like a heat sink or something just behind the rotor.
02:43 So a pretty cool setup there.
02:46 You've got these flared wheel arches as well.
02:48 Given this is the S model,
02:49 it kind of gives it that sporty intention,
02:51 makes it stand out a little bit.
02:53 You've got charging ports on both sides of the car,
02:55 and I'll run you through how they work shortly.
02:58 Now, this is interesting.
03:00 Normally up here, we talk about this mirror
03:02 and how big it is and all that sort of stuff,
03:03 but you've got an indicator built into there,
03:06 a camera there for the 360 camera, but also a camera here.
03:10 Now, the camera here is designed to give you vision
03:12 down the side of the car.
03:13 This is effectively your wing mirror.
03:15 This comes with aerodynamic benefits.
03:18 So that means that when you are driving,
03:20 you've got less resistance acting on the car
03:21 and you should in theory get more range.
03:23 How well does it work?
03:24 Well, I don't know.
03:26 Let's go for a drive and we'll find out because,
03:28 I don't know.
03:30 I don't love the sound of it, but we'll see how it goes.
03:32 You've got chrome around the sides there.
03:35 You've also got a moonroof up the top there,
03:37 privacy glass, and then come around to the back.
03:40 So sportback means you get to this point
03:42 and then they chop the back of it off.
03:44 This gives it that sporty appearance.
03:46 It will come at the cost of a little bit of boot room,
03:48 but for the most part,
03:49 it actually makes the car look very sporty
03:51 and it kind of suits it
03:52 given it is wearing the S badge over there.
03:54 You get this boot lip spoiler built into here,
03:56 this LED light that travels all the way across the back
04:00 with these LED segments over on the side as well.
04:04 Audi logo just here, e-tron S badge just there.
04:08 As you go down, they've obviously had to consider
04:10 removing exhausts from this type of design.
04:13 So they've split up the bottom sections of the bumper
04:15 with this sort of gray section there
04:18 and then more gray down the bottom
04:19 and obviously no exhaust.
04:21 Shark fin aerial up the top there as well.
04:23 And then a brake light integrated
04:24 right up the top of the glass there.
04:26 So let me know what you think about the design.
04:27 Do you think this looks good?
04:29 Do you prefer the standard e-tron or the sportback version?
04:32 Let me know in the comment section below.
04:34 So we're inside the e-tron.
04:36 We'll start with the key.
04:38 Here it is here.
04:39 So lock, boot, unlock, Audi, piano black,
04:44 just in case you needed some more of that in your life.
04:46 Piano black on the back as well.
04:49 And then an S logo just there.
04:51 It's a proximity sensing case.
04:53 You can leave that in your pocket.
04:54 Once you're inside, you have a push button start.
04:57 Now, what about this interior?
04:59 Let's go through the things I like.
05:00 So I like this material up the top here.
05:03 It's like a, I don't know what that is.
05:05 It's, it feels like carbon, but it's, yeah, I don't know.
05:09 But it's cool.
05:10 I like that.
05:11 It's a little bit different
05:11 to just your standard wood grain.
05:12 Then up the top there, you've got soft touch materials
05:14 and then like this stitched leatherette material
05:17 and soft touch through here as well.
05:19 There is a fair bit of piano black
05:20 around the edges of these screens.
05:23 And I do find as well, this really odd.
05:25 There's no cover for all this.
05:26 So this is just permanently open.
05:28 And I just find that a really strange setup.
05:30 I don't know why they wouldn't just put a cover in there,
05:32 but anyway, that is what it is.
05:34 What about our touch points?
05:36 So this is firm there and firm on the door as well.
05:39 How firm are they?
05:40 Well, we've got our durometer.
05:41 We've tested the main surfaces in this cabin.
05:44 If you want to see how this car compares to others,
05:46 have a look at the link in the description.
05:48 Build quality.
05:50 Yeah, this is all nice and strong.
05:53 And what about our door?
05:54 Yeah, that sounds really nice as well.
05:58 Let's talk about infotainment.
06:00 So it's all powered by this 10.1 inch screen up the top here.
06:04 Now this is an interesting screen
06:05 because yes, it's high resolution.
06:07 It's nice and snappy and all that sort of stuff,
06:09 but it actually features haptic feedback.
06:12 So as you press onto some of these items,
06:14 you feel a little click on your finger
06:16 as you navigate through them, which I think is pretty cool.
06:19 It's a nice little innovation.
06:20 And then while you're driving and you're doing stuff,
06:22 you know that you've done the command right
06:24 'cause you can feel a return on your finger there.
06:26 So yeah, in terms of the features,
06:28 so you have a shortcut menu up the top here.
06:30 This is connected to the internet,
06:32 so it gets updates and does all that sort of fun stuff.
06:35 You can see here there's a map update available for the car.
06:39 It also can act as a wireless hotspot as well.
06:41 Has satellite navigation built into it.
06:43 That's nice and quick as well.
06:45 No dramas there.
06:46 Terms of smartphone mirroring,
06:47 you have both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
06:49 That is wireless.
06:51 Have a look at that.
06:52 Very nice, very quick.
06:54 Good little integration there.
06:55 I'll show you what Android Auto looks like.
06:58 So again, we've got a full screen integration.
07:01 Nice and snappy as well.
07:03 Very impressive Audi.
07:04 What about your audio?
07:06 Have a look at this.
07:07 So if we go to radio,
07:09 you have AM, FM and DAB digital radio.
07:12 And that's all plumbed through a 16 speaker
07:15 Bang & Olufsen branded sound system.
07:17 It is a fantastic sound system.
07:19 So if you're into your music,
07:20 you're going to absolutely love that.
07:22 What else have we got here that I can show you?
07:24 Look, outside of that,
07:25 the rest of this is pretty straightforward.
07:26 You have Bluetooth for your phone.
07:28 There's a weather app built into here.
07:30 It's going to be telling us
07:31 that it is bloody freezing where we are right now.
07:34 And that it's probably going to rain again
07:35 for the 10th time today.
07:37 There it is.
07:38 So yes, cloudy and very cold as well.
07:40 So let's have a look at the screen here
07:42 below the main infotainment screen.
07:44 Down here, you've got an 8.6 inch display.
07:46 Now this one also has haptic feedback
07:48 and this is where you control things like your climate.
07:50 So when you do switch that on,
07:51 you can see this is how you drive climate up and down.
07:55 You can swipe your finger like that if you need to,
07:56 or you can just push those controls.
07:58 In addition to that,
07:59 you can also customize what appears
08:01 in this favorites menu here.
08:03 And this is also where you can bring up
08:05 additional context menus,
08:06 such as your fragrance pumping into the cabin
08:08 and also things like your head steering wheel and stuff.
08:11 So it's a nice setup.
08:13 There is a lot going on here.
08:14 So while you're driving,
08:15 it can be a little bit distracting,
08:16 but I think once you own the car and get used to it,
08:18 it's actually not too bad.
08:19 Final screen we're going to talk about,
08:21 actually second final,
08:22 I'll run you through the final one in a second,
08:23 is this one here.
08:24 So just over 12 inches in size.
08:27 Virtual cockpit, again, super high resolution screen,
08:30 and you can flick between a number of different views
08:32 and styles here, depending on what mood you're in.
08:36 And that is so fast.
08:38 The other thing I don't love about it
08:39 is I don't see navigation items
08:41 if I do have smartphone mirroring running.
08:43 So it is a little bit disappointing
08:45 there's no interaction between the two,
08:46 but it does bring up your navigation
08:49 if you do have the inbuilt system active.
08:50 Finally, this is the other screen
08:52 I wanted to tell you about, the mirrors.
08:54 So this is where you now look down the side of the car.
08:57 Instead of looking out the window there at a mirror
08:59 to look down the side of the car, you look here.
09:01 You've got one on each side
09:02 and then you can adjust that view while you're driving.
09:04 Does it work?
09:05 We'll wait till we go for a drive, but I don't know.
09:08 I don't think I'm sold on it just yet.
09:10 We'll see how we go.
09:11 What about your safety tech?
09:12 You've got AEB that works forwards, reverse.
09:16 You've got an auto dimming rear vision mirror.
09:18 You have a lane departure warning,
09:20 a lane keeping assistant, radar cruise control,
09:23 blind spot monitoring, which is kind of just this little bit
09:26 that comes up on the corner here.
09:28 You have rear cross traffic alert.
09:31 Then on the parking front,
09:32 you have both front and rear parking sensors
09:34 and a 360 camera.
09:35 I'll show you what that looks like.
09:37 That's looking out the back there.
09:38 You can see the view of that is pretty good.
09:40 We can see our suitcase nicely.
09:42 You can then adjust the views if you want.
09:43 So you've got a 3D view where you can whip around the car.
09:47 You can see a little replica of our car there.
09:49 You then have a bunch of other views
09:51 that you can then choose within that 3D view.
09:54 Then you've got all of these other angles as well
09:57 that you can flick through as you go.
09:59 So yeah, plenty there to choose from.
10:01 So it's a pretty impressive setup there on the 360 camera.
10:04 Quality of it is good.
10:06 You can see there when you zoom in a little bit,
10:07 it's kind of tiny bit pixelated, but for the most part,
10:10 it's a pretty impressive system.
10:12 Now, what about your practicality?
10:13 And we'll start off with the connectivity.
10:15 So you have a 12 volt outlet down the bottom here,
10:17 two USB-C ports.
10:20 What about your phone storage as well?
10:22 So it can easily slot down here.
10:24 There's another sort of slot down there for it as well,
10:27 but I don't think there's any wireless phone charging,
10:29 which is pretty disappointing if you ask me.
10:34 You've got storage down here
10:35 and also a center console coffee cup
10:38 that can live down here.
10:39 You've actually got these retractable teeth
10:41 with rubber elements in them.
10:43 So when you do put a drink in there,
10:44 it's not going to go anywhere.
10:46 Show you what it looks like with our drink bottle as well.
10:49 Look at that, slots in nicely.
10:51 This also fits inside the door without any problems.
10:54 What about our big bottle?
10:55 See if big Bertha fits inside the door.
10:58 Yeah, it fits in there without any issues at all,
11:00 which is quite impressive.
11:02 What about your other storage?
11:03 Now down here, you have a big old storage slot
11:06 for who knows what,
11:08 but you can literally reach all the way into that,
11:10 which is great.
11:10 And then finally, you have a glove box over here,
11:14 which is pretty generously sized as well.
11:16 Moving on to comfort.
11:18 So diamond quilted leather seats, very nice,
11:21 with S emblazoned in there.
11:24 Love this red interior too.
11:25 It looks really nice and it's not over the top
11:27 like some red interiors can be.
11:30 You've got dual zone automatic climate control
11:32 up the front here.
11:33 Heated seats, you have a heated steering wheel.
11:37 You also have fragrance and ionization.
11:40 In terms of the seats themselves and the adjustments,
11:43 fully electrically adjustable
11:44 for driver and front passenger.
11:45 So you can go forwards, backwards,
11:47 backrest can go forwards, backwards.
11:49 You can lift the base of the seat at the front and the back.
11:53 And then you have lumbar adjustment.
11:55 This extends as well.
11:57 Memory for the driver.
11:58 Steering adjustment is entirely manual for tilt and reach.
12:02 On our reach test,
12:04 all of this stuff is easy to reach while we're driving.
12:06 So second row, before I go through the room,
12:08 I just wanna run you through these door handles.
12:10 So these use an electronic strike.
12:12 So as you pull that, the door pops open.
12:15 There is an emergency release
12:16 if you just keep pulling it harder.
12:17 But big advantage of this is your kids can't run out
12:20 if there's another car or cyclist coming
12:23 and just won't let them open the door
12:25 and all this flashes when that happens.
12:27 So very impressive stuff.
12:29 On room, we have loads of knee room.
12:31 Toe room is okay.
12:33 Headroom is not too bad.
12:36 What else have we got?
12:37 So I like the quality here with the Alcantara
12:39 in the doors on the front and here in the second row.
12:41 And that leather continues there as well.
12:42 Feels just as premium here in the second row
12:44 as it does at the front.
12:46 You've got mat pockets, air vents,
12:48 third and fourth zones of climate control, heated seats,
12:52 two USB-C ports down the bottom and a 12-volt outlet.
12:55 You have a sunshade here, a center armrest.
12:59 You've got a little bit of storage there.
13:01 Then you have two cup holders here.
13:04 That fits into there nicely.
13:05 And then fits inside the door as well.
13:09 You've got ISOFIX points on your two outboard seats
13:12 with three top tether points.
13:14 Then what about our window test?
13:16 Let's give that a shot.
13:17 Auto up and down.
13:18 And it's so pointless.
13:21 Only goes like three quarters of the way down.
13:23 Let's talk cargo space.
13:26 You have a little over 600 litres available here.
13:31 Yeah, look, it's an interesting boot
13:32 because the lip is really high off the ground.
13:35 So when you are loading stuff in,
13:36 you kind of have to throw it over the lip to get it in.
13:38 And then the boot floor sits quite high as well.
13:41 But there is storage off to the sides here.
13:43 You've got these hooks as well.
13:45 And then if you actually have a look under here,
13:47 you do have quite a depth of storage there
13:50 for things like charging cables and the like.
13:52 And then you have a space saver tie here
13:54 that inflates and pops out to the size you need it to be.
13:59 What does it look like with our bags in there?
14:00 Let's give this a shot as the sun comes out.
14:03 So there's that bag.
14:04 And this one, it looks not too bad,
14:07 but you can see there, once you load that stuff in,
14:09 you've pretty much reached the limit of your boot there.
14:12 And then what you can do,
14:13 if you do want a little bit more space,
14:15 you can drop the second row,
14:16 but there's no release levers here.
14:19 So you have to lean all the way in,
14:21 awkwardly release the lever and push them forward
14:25 or manually go around to your second row.
14:27 So not exactly the most practical solution,
14:30 but when you do that,
14:30 you get just under 1700 litres of space.
14:34 And then in addition to this stuff here,
14:36 you have 60 litres worth of cargo space
14:38 within the front boot.
14:41 Now, before we go for a drive, let's talk about charging.
14:43 So you have this very fancy electric cover that drops down.
14:47 You've got two charging slots on the car.
14:50 So one on this side, one on the passenger side as well.
14:53 I don't love the location of these simply because yes,
14:56 it is handy to have two sides,
14:58 but you kind of have to drape things over the car
15:00 if it's a short fast charging cable.
15:02 And then in addition to that,
15:03 only this side offers AC and DC charging.
15:06 The other side is just AC charging.
15:09 Now in terms of your charging, on the AC front,
15:11 it comes standard with three phase 11 kilowatt charging,
15:14 but you can option a faster 22 kilowatt three phase charger,
15:19 which I think is great.
15:20 But on the DC front,
15:22 this allows you to charge it up to 150 kilowatts DC.
15:25 Not really amazing given that a lot of other competitors
15:28 in this segment are now offering much faster charging.
15:31 Even something like the Model 3 long range
15:33 will do up to 250 kilowatts worth of charging.
15:35 So I think this technology could be a little bit better
15:38 in that regard.
15:40 In terms of the battery, it's just under 100 kilowatt hours.
15:42 And the cool thing with the battery
15:44 is that there's 36 battery modules.
15:47 Each of those is individually cooled
15:48 and each can be individually replaced
15:51 if it fails or degrades over time.
15:53 So I think that's a pretty clever innovation
15:55 and it means you get longevity out of the battery pack
15:57 as opposed to it just being an entirely replaceable thing
16:00 like it is in a lot of other cars.
16:03 (car engine roaring)
16:06 So I've just hit the road in the e-tron Sportback.
16:10 It's quiet.
16:12 I know I say this every time we jump in an EV,
16:14 but it is good that they have the basics right,
16:17 especially on a 22 inch tire.
16:19 I know we're only doing a low speed at the moment,
16:20 but it is quiet, which is good news.
16:22 Now the S really steps it up a notch.
16:24 I mentioned in the intro
16:25 that this debuts a tri electric motor setup.
16:29 So I know that Tesla is now using
16:32 that kind of arrangement too,
16:33 but these guys are quite early on in the game with it,
16:35 which means you get one electric motor on the front axle
16:38 and then two electric motors on the rear.
16:41 And that gives them the ability to really just pump
16:43 a lot of torque down this driveline in effect.
16:46 And it also means it can actually do proper torque vectoring
16:49 at the rear 'cause you have one electric motor
16:51 able to do something while the other does something else.
16:54 So it is a proper sort of torque vectoring system,
16:56 but fully electronic instead of being mechanical.
16:59 Now, what does that produce?
17:00 So 370 kilowatts of power
17:03 and just under a thousand Newton meters of torque
17:07 when you are in boost mode and you activate boost mode
17:09 by hitting the kick down switch when you get on the throttle.
17:13 If you don't have boost mode running though,
17:14 it's 320 kilowatts,
17:16 which is still pretty reasonable in my book, I reckon.
17:19 Where you will notice the big difference though,
17:21 when it comes to converting those power figures
17:24 into getting perception in your mind about how quick this is,
17:27 is when it comes to the weight.
17:29 So again, I mentioned in the intro,
17:30 this is an internal combustion platform
17:32 that's been converted to electric.
17:34 And as a result of that,
17:35 you don't get the efficiencies that you do
17:37 when you go straight electric in terms of your platform.
17:40 And as a result of that, it weighs around 2,700 kilograms.
17:45 That is absolutely enormous.
17:48 And it seems kind of illogical making battery packs
17:51 bigger and bigger to make these cars go further and further
17:54 when all they end up doing is weighing an enormous amount.
17:57 So I'll be interested to see when we go for a bit of a fang,
17:59 whether that affects the way that this thing handles.
18:01 And as it all feels,
18:02 so we're in comfort mode at the moment.
18:04 As you roll onto the throttle,
18:05 it all feels perfectly fine.
18:07 And as you roll on harder,
18:10 it does all the electric car stuff
18:11 by jamming you back in your seat.
18:14 The interesting thing I'm gonna point out here as well
18:16 is our regen mode.
18:17 So you can see it just there.
18:18 It doesn't quite act
18:20 like a single pedal driving type arrangement
18:23 like you do find in Nissan LEAF,
18:26 some of the Hyundai products and also Tesla.
18:28 It basically comes down to a low speed
18:29 and then rolls from there.
18:31 You do have an auto regen setting though,
18:34 and that's meant to look at GPS data
18:36 and predict when you do need to come to a complete stop.
18:38 I find that it really doesn't work very well,
18:40 especially if you do wanna take over your regen
18:42 because every time you input something,
18:44 it's overridden immediately after.
18:46 So I don't know, the mode really needs some work
18:48 and I prefer just a simple single pedal driving setup.
18:51 So I can just roll out of the throttle,
18:52 it will come to a complete stop
18:53 and then I can just take off again.
18:56 (car engine revving)
18:57 Let's talk efficiency.
18:58 So in the EV world, efficiency is measured
19:01 by watt hours per kilometre
19:03 or kilowatt hours per 100 kilometres.
19:06 This car has an official rating
19:08 of 26 kilowatt hours per 100 kilometres.
19:11 If we were to convert that to car terms,
19:13 that is very high compared to other vehicles.
19:15 And if you have a look at our consumption,
19:16 it is also pretty high, 30.6 kilowatt hours per 100 kilometres.
19:21 That really isn't that impressive.
19:22 That means over 300 kilometres of driving,
19:24 you're basically going to completely drain the battery.
19:28 So that's a realistic driving range
19:29 of around 300 kilometres, which I don't know.
19:32 I just don't think that's all that impressive
19:34 when your car is costing almost $200,000.
19:37 So let's talk digital mirrors.
19:40 That is where I'm getting my vision.
19:43 I don't really love it if I'm honest.
19:45 I'm used to looking there for a mirror.
19:47 So, okay, let's adjust that and look further down.
19:50 Problem is it's not natural.
19:51 So your vision is straight out the front there,
19:53 you need to check your wing mirror.
19:55 You have to then look down towards that.
19:58 At night time, the vision is okay, but not amazing.
20:01 Yeah, I don't know.
20:03 I just don't think it's a very good setup.
20:04 And I find that, you know, this type of thing,
20:08 they just shouldn't implement it until it's perfect.
20:09 And I just don't feel it's perfect just yet.
20:12 Okay, let's dial this up to maximum highway speed
20:17 here in Australia, 130 kilometres an hour
20:20 to see how it performs on our sign waves.
20:23 I can tell you right now that the ride,
20:25 despite this being on 22 inch alloy wheels is fantastic.
20:28 The air suspension, adaptive damping setup
20:31 really just gives this just comfort
20:34 and just feels like a Rolls Royce.
20:36 It is really impressive.
20:37 So here come our sign waves.
20:40 Wow, that is good.
20:42 Yeah, despite its weight, it has excellent body control
20:46 and it just floats over those without any problems at all.
20:48 So very impressed with that.
20:50 Now in terms of your drive modes,
20:51 if you select them down here with the drive select button,
20:54 it is a little bit distracting
20:56 because you've got to take your eyes off the road,
20:57 go all the way down here, find this button, press it,
21:00 then look up at this screen
21:02 and select the drive mode that you want.
21:03 So you've got everything from off-road,
21:05 which jacks the ride height up,
21:07 to all road, which is for a little bit of off-roading,
21:09 efficiency, comfort, auto, dynamic, individual.
21:13 There is a little bit of everything in there.
21:15 So let's pop this into sport mode, which is dynamic.
21:19 Suspension comes down.
21:21 Steering gets heavier, the ride gets firmer.
21:23 Punted around our corner,
21:24 we have access to boost mode now as well.
21:28 Now it is very wet out here at the moment, so.
21:30 (car engine roaring)
21:31 Whoa, a little bit careful.
21:33 Far out, that has got some road holding.
21:35 So it is a whopper of a thing, you know, almost 2.7 tonnes,
21:39 but it is holding on nicely to the road there.
21:42 Looks probably not as fast as I thought it was going to be
21:45 in terms of the acceleration.
21:47 You know, Tesla has about that thousand new metres of torque
21:50 when you look at something like a Model S Performance,
21:53 but this doesn't feel like it's as punchy,
21:56 even when boost mode is active.
21:57 And I think that is courtesy of all the weight
22:00 that it's lugging around.
22:01 But once the speed picks up,
22:03 it is actually sitting pretty flat through corners.
22:06 (car engine roaring)
22:09 Yeah, it's interesting.
22:11 You have confidence in it,
22:13 and that sort of torque vectoring setup
22:16 they have on the rear axle,
22:18 this allows it to tuck in
22:19 through some of these higher speed corners.
22:21 We've got a punch on the back straight here.
22:23 I've got that pin to the board,
22:25 and it's, I can see the boost counting down.
22:28 It's limiting our ability to keep the foot in that.
22:31 But look, it actually picks up speed and moves fast.
22:34 It just doesn't feel like it's doing it quickly.
22:37 It's a bit hard to explain, but yeah, look,
22:39 I think this is fun to drive and engaging.
22:42 And look, if you do switch everything off,
22:44 it can do drifty sort of things as well.
22:47 (car engine roaring)
22:50 It's not strictly just all wheel drive,
22:54 so it is fun in that regard as well.
22:56 (car engine roaring)
22:59 Audi claims a zero to 100 time of 4.5 seconds.
23:03 This is how it went up against our stopwatch.
23:06 (car engine roaring)
23:10 So what's your visibility like?
23:16 This sits sort of higher off the ground.
23:18 And as a result of that,
23:19 I can see pretty clearly down the front there.
23:21 It's got very much an SUV proportion
23:24 when you're sitting inside.
23:25 Visibility down the side,
23:26 so we've already talked about our sort of side
23:29 digital mirrors and the visibility is okay.
23:32 You can see quite far down the side there.
23:34 It's just the placement of that, it's not great.
23:36 Visibility out the back isn't amazing.
23:37 It's a very narrow envelope,
23:39 so it is a little tricky to see,
23:40 but you do have all of the sensors
23:42 and all the parking stuff there
23:43 to make this easy to park in and around the city.
23:45 The turning circle comes in at a little over 12 metres
23:48 and there is a towing capacity.
23:49 So you can tow 1800 kilograms with a braked trailer,
23:53 but keep in mind, given that this has limited range already,
23:56 if you do whack a trailer on the back,
23:57 it's really going to bring that down even further.
24:00 (car engine roaring)
24:03 Perfect timing, just as the rain starts,
24:06 e-tron S Sportback.
24:08 What do we reckon?
24:09 Look, I did like this more than I liked
24:11 the original e-tron that I drove.
24:13 This still doesn't have a great deal of range though.
24:16 I mean, realistically, it's about 300,
24:18 350 Ks of real driving range.
24:20 And then when you do go harder with it,
24:21 it will drain very quickly.
24:23 And that all comes due to the fact
24:24 that this isn't really a proper EV ground up platform.
24:28 It is an internal combustion car
24:29 that has EV components in it.
24:31 So that is a little bit disappointing,
24:33 but from a performance point of view,
24:35 it does handle pretty nicely for a car
24:37 that weighs almost 2.7 tonnes.
24:39 You can kind of throw it around a bit
24:40 and have some fun with it
24:41 and it has plenty of throttle response as well.
24:44 Heaps of room inside and it's just typical Audi.
24:46 It looks and feels like any other luxury Audi on the road.
24:49 So when you are spending this kind of money,
24:51 you actually are getting a nice return inside the cabin.
24:54 So let me know what you reckon in the comments section below.
24:56 Do you own an e-tron?
24:58 Have you had a crack in one of these?
25:00 What do you think?
25:00 Is it the future of Audi and motoring in general?
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25:11 But until next time, take it easy.